Lefty-heavy Nats stifled by southpaw Lopez in loss (updated)

This homestand has not been kind to the Nationals' offense. Over the first five games, they only scored 23 runs, 11 of which came in the ninth inning.

One of those ninth-inning runs, however, was last night’s walk-off winner to snap a six-game losing streak. The Nats were hopeful those good vibes would carry over into Thursday’s matinee finale as they went for a much-needed series win over the Athletics.

But the early hole the Nats found themselves in this afternoon was too much for this lifeless lineup to overcome in a 6-0 loss in front of an announced crowd of 14,519 on South Capitol Street.

Interim manager Miguel Cairo tried to go against conventional wisdom against A’s left-hander Jacob Lopez. Instead of stacking his order with right-handed hitters, like most teams have against Lopez this year (only 52 plate appearances by left-handed hitters against him entering today), Cairo put six lefties in his starting lineup, leaving two switch-hitters (Josh Bell and Drew Millas) and one right-hander (Brady House) on the bench.

“House has not been hitting good against lefties," Cairo said to explain his lineup after the game. "I wanted (Paul) DeJong, he's been swinging the bat good. JB right-handed, he's not swinging the back good either. He's a better left-handed hitter. So I was just trying to go with giving a chance to (Luis García Jr.) to play second base to see if he can do a better job. But I guess I gotta do a better job doing the lineup against lefties.”

Indeed, because the strategy didn’t work out all too well, with Lopez shutting out the Nats over 7 ⅔ innings with three hits, no walks and 10 strikeouts on 114 pitches. And thanks to Nathaniel Lowe's 17-pitch strikeout and Daylen Lile’s seven-pitch strikeout in the eighth, Lopez didn’t become the fourth pitcher to toss a complete-game shutout against the Nationals this season.

The lefty hitters in the Nats’ starting lineup went a combined 2-for-16 with five strikeouts against the 27-year-old southpaw. The two hits came in the third, but the Nats’ first chance to score was quickly erased.

Daylen Lile led off the inning with an infield single, his speed up the baseline too much to even force a throw to first. But as he tried to use his speed again to steal second, Jacob Young struck out swinging and was called for catcher’s interference, making Lile automatically out.

“Just the arm angle," Lile said of what made facing Lopez as a left-handed hitter so difficult. "He was a kind of sidearm dude, and everything was just coming from behind me, crossfire-type angle. And yeah, it was just a tough AB.”

That was a real shame because Robert Hassell III sent a double into the left field corner (his fifth extra-base hit since coming back up from Triple-A Rochester) that likely would’ve scored Lile. Instead, there was no one on base ahead of Hassell, who was stranded at second when CJ Abrams grounded out on the second pitch.

The only other hit off Lopez was Riley Adams’s leadoff single in the fifth. And although he made his way to second on a fielder’s choice groundout, he too would be left stranded at second, leaving the Nats off the scoreboard.

"When we saw their lineup had six lefties in it, we’re like, 'Alright, we can have a good day today,'" A's catcher Willie Maclver told reporters in the visiting clubhouse.

“I'm going to tell you, we need to do a better job against lefties," Cairo said. "He just mixed it up good. Kept it down, threw changeups. Just, we need to get better at-bats. And we got to play better in day games. I think our record in day games is really bad. So we gotta fix it. We gotta do something different.”

So what exactly do the Nationals have to do in order to have more success against left-handed pitching?

“We gotta have a plan on how they're gonna pitch us. Simple as that," the interim skipper said. "Get good at-bats and hit your pitch. We were kind of swinging at everything that he threw and he was getting ahead. But we gotta do a better job against lefties. That lefty cannot throw eight innings or seven innings in there. No chance.”

That lack of offense was enough to keep the Nats buried beneath an early deficit.

Despite his consistent struggles in the opening frame, Mitchell Parker navigated the first with ease, pitching around a one-out walk and finishing the inning on a mere 10 pitches. This time it was the second inning the lefty labored through as he gave his team an early uphill battle.

Parker needed 29 pitches to finish the second in which he gave up three runs on three hits and a walk. The blows came in the form of rookie Colby Thomas’ first career home run, a two-run shot that followed a one-out walk, and a sacrifice fly from Shea Langeliers to win an 11-pitch battle.

“Just kind of fell behind too many times," Parker said. "Had to leave too many good pitches in there. Obviously, they're a really aggressive team at the plate, so having to kind of give them their pitch is not a recipe for success for the majority of the time.”

Another run was charged to Parker’s line in the fourth when he surrendered what should have been a leadoff double to Darell Hernaiz. But when Lile couldn’t handle the ball in the left field corner, the speedy shortstop easily made his way to third and scored on a sac fly to make it 4-0.

“I just took a bad route," Lile said. "I thought it was going to hit off the pad in the corner, and it got past me and I thought it was going to kick out on the sidewall. I should have just been more aggressive and attacked the ball. So yeah, that was definitely on me. I went to Mitch and told him that was my bad. But just got to be better and just know in the outfield how the walls work and stuff.”

Parker finished the afternoon with only one clean inning and five total, giving up six hits, four runs and three walks with four strikeouts on 85 pitches, 52 strikes. He’s now 7-12 with a 5.43 ERA over 23 starts, though he believes he's improving.

"Getting there," he said. "Obviously not where we want to be, but getting close, hopefully.”

Tyler Soderstrom hit a leadoff home run off PJ Poulin in the eighth and the A’s added another run off Orlando Ribalta in the ninth to put the final stamp on this homestand, one in which the Nats went 1-5 and were outscored 61-23.

“You got 26 players in there and maybe 10 coaches. We gotta do our job and we gotta get better. Simple as that," Cairo said. "And we got seven weeks to do it. And yesterday it was nice to see the guys battling. And they're still battling. I'm gonna tell you, they're going over there, they're battling every day, they're working. But just today we couldn't do it against Lopez.”